UK Games Expo 2020 games

Acolyte

I noticed the RPG events have started to show on the UKGameExpo site. Unfortunately they've changed the website and they're now absolute dog-shit to browse, you have to click on every one to see the System and it doesn't state whose running it so you can't go for the GMs you trust and avoid those you may have personally blacklisted.

Anyway, whose planning on running something this year and what have you submitted?

Rune Priest

I am running stuff, I submitted nice and early in an attempt to take advantage of the virtual conkreig that strikes when booking first opens. Due to my inability to stop myself babbling when asked about possible inappropriate content not all my games have been finalised, but I should be doing:

Friday morning: ReContact! (Mongoose Traveller)
A hidden research base in the asteroid fields, a research crew, and an unexpected arrival...

Friday Afternoon: An Inquiry Into The Wealth Of Matrons (Manifold/steampunk Mars)
A group of Martian low-lifes attempt to save a young man from a dreadful fate.

Saturday Morning: The Legend Of The Glas Gaivlen (Tuatha De Danaan/Yin-Yang System)
Mythic Celtic heroes attempt to retrieve a stolen cow or get revenge for their lord!

Saturday Afternoon: The First Woman On Mars (Manifold/steampunk Mars)
Find the missing woman before the whole Martian colony bursts into violence.

Rune Priest

The new look events system does look like hard work to me, but I'm willing to wait until I see it in real operation before passing judgement.

I'm not bothered about GM privacy to be honest: if someone wants to avoid me, I'd rather they succeeded than accidentally ended up in one of my games. And (like many people I suspect) there are some GMs out there that I wouldn't choose to play with again due to a clash in styles.

It'd be wrong to discriminate against someone purely on the name if you've never encountered them, but I want to discriminate against bad GMs.

Some GMs consistently run great games, some are flakey, some just phone it in to get free accommodation. I don't get that much free time and wasting a fiver and half a day in someone's game that I know I'm extremely unlikely to enjoy would be very upsetting.

Lay member

I wouldn't want to support weird prejudices or enable stalkers, but honestly, they idea of wanting to play in X's game because X has done a good job for you in the past, or avoiding Y because you found Y's previous game a badly-run waste of time, seems like a good thing to me. And I don't claim to be the world's greatest GM, but I've had a few players sign up because it was me, and I've never seen or heard of a really serious GM-stalker. (I've seen a few mildly creepy and annoying players, but they were clearly going to be like that with anybody.) Is there really any evidence that there's a problem here needing a solution?

As it is, when I finally get around to submitting games, I'll just say which are mine in other places online. Plus, there may be one or two games where the text says "Run by the game's own author"...

I’m stealing that soundbite! And, no, it’s not a real problem but I have seen referees who don’t get much variation in players. They’re always polite about it but I can’t help thinking I’D want to mix it up a bit.

Moderator

I'll be there for the first time this year! Mostly busy selling wares, but it would be nice to play in a game or two. I'll also admit that the name of the GM is a mostly positive part of my process for deciding which games to sign up for (though not the only factor) and it feels strange not having that.

In the unlikely event I have fans, I don't mind! I don't think I'm formally GMing this year though.

In my experience, most conventions surely have too much contention for game slots, and too much randomness in the system, for the same players always to get into a given GM's games. Those GMs might suffer the awkward discovery that the reason they always get the same players is that those players are the only ones interested in their games...

Rune Priest

I've just sent JD a strongly worded email about this. There are very real safety issues involved with players not knowing who their GM will be. Moreso because it puts the emphasis on the player to self select out not at the point of purchase, but
at the table itself. There, under the spotlight, they may feel pressured to play with someone who they want to avoid, be under pressure to justify their decision, or be pursued afterwards to justify it anyway. It's simply not on.

It's not about people wanting to play with their favourite GM. There are enough game IDs that people can use to get into that situation. Players shouldn't have to keep a track of the game names of people they are avoiding in order to cross reference them for their own safety. It's madness

Acolyte

A previous gaming group of mine split acrimoniously. Trouble is 1 member always GMs a particular system at cons that the others like playing. There's 2 other Con GMs that tend to run that system, so usually they just avoid his game, but now there's a good chance they'll accidentally pick one of his games and create a lot of awkwardness.